Malvena Pearl’s Emporium

colored graphite study of flowers 1.17.11

Here’s the latest work I’ve done on the quilt square: the teeth of the skull.

I’m thinking of different stitches I can use to outline it and then make the wreath of flowers and leaves around it.

And here’s another evening of work on it, now with more definition:

Greetings from the Emporium! Happy 2011 to everyone.

Every so often, inspiration strikes to help get me moving to our next endeavor. I will be posting much more often this year as I have been inspired by two sources. I read an article about a project diary called 365 Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life. This  strikes me as very similar to the write-every-day strategy for folks who are writing a novel in a month. I’m inspired.

I also have a friend who has been drawing a bird every day. Her work is all over her living room and it’s inspirational. I will Make Something Every Day.

To jump start this process, I began work on a quilt square for a charity quilt. It’s being put together for a non-profit called Becky’s Fund by Abby over at Skull A Day. I’m kind of excited about it because I’m starting small and contributing to a group project. This I can do. I started yesterday.

I have been drawn to the images of Dia de Los Muertos, since I volunteered at the community event at the Oakland Museum. The first year I volunteered, I got to  meet the organizers and participants and also was able to participate in the celebration and community blessing. I want to draw upon traditional imagery from that event for this project.

I did some research on images of skulls and went through my fabric collection to find a suitable background fabric. I drew the basic design in chalk and then went over it in ink onto the back of the square of fabric. I want it to be tactile, so I went over this outline with the sewing machine. It’s going to be partly applique and partly embroidery, with ribbon flowers. Here are the beginning photos.

Here are some photos of the completed bonnet. My friend made the lace that I used to trim the inside:

This bonnet is for a dancer who is doing workshops to perform in Fezziwig’s at the Great Dickens Fair in San Francisco.  I built it from buckram, millinery wire and cotton fabric. I’m sewing it  by hand. For inspiration, I used several sources. The Dickens Fair folk provide guidelines for costuming for their event here. I also found  many books to inspire me at Costume College, two years ago. One is a British publication entitled, “Hats and Bonnets” by Althea Mackenzie with photography by Richard Blakey, published by The National Trust, London, UK, 2004. The photos and descriptions of hats and bonnets are wonderful.  I’m looking forward to embellishing this bonnet with ribbon, trim and lace, to match the dancer’s dress, that I embellished for her earlier this year.

Some friends shared an article with me. It’s about a collection of fabric samples from the eighteenth century  left with children at the Foundling Hospital in London. The hospital was opened in 1739. The article looks at the pieces of fabric that were left with the children as a tiny window into the lives of working class women. These were women who felt they had to give up their babies and some left a piece of cloth with the child as means of identification.

“The clothing of elite groups – fashionable merchants’ wives, duchesses with an eye for style – have survived in countless stately homes and museums. You can feast your eyes on silk and velvet, on silver buckles and pearl buttons, but you will search in vain for evidence of what ordinary working people wore to keep themselves dry and more-or-less warm.”

Read the piece about an exhibition of the fabric called Threads of Feeling.

After many hours of hand-sewing,  I have completed the embellishments on the Victorian dress. The pattern of the trim is based on a number of photographs and fashion drawings from the 1840s - 186os. It’s two layers of trim: the top one is thin, red velvet ribbon. The collar is antique lace and so is the lace at the cuffs. All hand-sewn onto the garment, which was provided to me by the person who asked me for assistance.

I listened to some great digital recordings of J.K. Rowling’s first three “Harry Potter” books, while I sewed.

Here are a couple of pictures.

back of bodice

completed trim on Victorian dress

Progress! Hand sewing some gorgeous trim onto a cotton dress that will be worn to dances and to the Dickens Faire!

Yes, that is 2 layers of trim: the first layer is three colored and the top layer is thin, red velvet.

On the dvd player: Freaks and Geeks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2 and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the Jeremy Brett production.

And it was fun!

Here are some photographic highlights